Techniques are known to facilitate operating a display device remotely from a personal computing device, such as a mobile phone, in order to view a video file or other content on the display device. For example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/157,821 describes a system in which a server system acts as a single interface that can be used to control any one of multiple media players (i.e., computer software applications for playing video or other content) that may be needed to play different video or other files on a display device such as a television screen. As an example, the display device may receive from the server system a message, based on input from a mobile phone, that instructs the display device to access a content provider, load a specific media player, load specific content (e.g., a video) to be played on the display device, and play the content on the display device using the media player.
Recently, various types of display devices have become popular and their use has become widespread. For example, some applications can be run on a gaming console, a tablet computer, a television set, or a set-top box, where the display device serves as a platform for audio-visual media such as books, movies, music, games or web content. However, some of these display devices have somewhat limited processing power and, therefore, may not be sufficiently powerful to run a swappable media player such as described in the foregoing patent application. Thus, using the techniques described in the foregoing patent application to control the display of content on such display devices presents a challenge.